June 2022

Yes, it’s summer. But I’m back anyway!

This is part 2 of a conversation with Sarah Federman on enslavement within the context of mass atrocity ‘reckoning’. (Listen to part 1 here.) Highlights in this conversations include suggestions and recommendations for impactful apologies and ways to acknowledge ties to harms that still impact communities in the present. The Baltimore Sun provides an exemplary template for what needs to be said–in government, in corporations, in organizations–in order for us to heal and move forward as a nation. This episode begins to explore ways to talk about present day ties to mass atrocities of the past without indicting people who themselves may be struggling with poverty or disenfranchisement. It also acknowledges the difficulty of the “it wasn’t me, I wasn’t there” argument. Come back for part 3 next week. 

About the guest:

Sarah Federman is an Associate Professor of Conflict Resolution at the University of San Diego’s Kroc School of Peace Studies. She is the author of the award winning Last Train to Auschwitz: The French National Railways and the Journey to Accountability (2021). She has also written for the Harvard Business Review and the Journal of Business Ethics concerning the corporate obligation to atone for participation in mass atrocity such as genocide, slavery, and violence associated with colonialism. In 2022, she testified before Congress concerning the responsibility of U.S. banks to respond to their slavery ties. This summer her co-authored anthology “Narratives of Mass Atrocity: Victims and Perpetrators in the Aftermath” will be published by Cambridge University Press. Federman comes to this work after a decade as an international advertising executive working with companies such as Google and NFL.

This is part 2 of a 3 part series.

It’s easy to say “we are not suspending our kids”, knowing that the number of suspensions directly correlates to the number of incarcerations. But without a plan for transformative discipline, the ensuing chaos disrupts learning. We can impact whole communities by ensuring that our discipline protocols keep our kids on campus, and empower students to own and manage their own behavior with strategic, caring guidance. When we take ‘not suspending kids’ seriously, we provide them with the tools they need to be successful members of the learning community and of society.

From last week: A Whole Child Framework

Restorative practice is a holistic framework for comprehensive culture shifts that impacts students, staff, parents and every member of the learning community in and beyond the school walls. This holistic approach takes what we know from SEL and trauma informed practices and puts stakeholders in the driver’s seat. In the classroom that means respecting and valuing each community member and centering dignity and respect to help everyone think about how their actions affects others. This kind of #bettertogether approach, when consistently implemented, impacts the ‘whole child’.

In order to keep each child and the learning community healthy as a whole, those who engage in what is known as harm causing behaviors have a function, as do those who have been affected. Start with the student who caused harm and depending on the level of harm and the class climate, have the discussion in class with a talking stick or piece. (The practice of talking circles originates with indigenous peoples and you can watch this video to learn more about its history and how not to venture into the waters of cultural appropriation.) I didn’t use a centerpiece or a stick but I did use a ball made of tape. The understanding was, as with a talking stick, that the holder of the ball deserved the absolute attention of everyone else in the circle. I found that students liked to catch the ball, so they volunteered to talk. 

Restorative Practice Questions

Why did you think that was a good choice/Why did you make that decision? How did that choice affect others? Who did it affect? How can you provide scaffolding and sentence stems to help the person who caused harm to take ownership of their choice? By having intentional conversations, either one on one or with other students, those who cause harm can begin to see themselves as empowered rather than seeing themselves as “the bad kid”. 

Join #SmallBites next week for part 3 when we’ll delve into more questions and scenarios to help with the uptick of “behaviors” educators have seen this year.

Learn More:

Everyday building blocks of transformative justice

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

This is part 1 of a 3 part series.

Across the country teachers are being squeezed between data deep dives on one side and recurrent student behavioral issues on the other. The caught- in-the-middle pressure is putting a squeeze on teachers that is sending them out of the educational sector in droves. While the academic disparities are real, doubling down on looking at data and more testing will not make an impact with our most vulnerable students as long as teachers struggle with repetitive classroom disruptions with little or no strategic support from admin.

SEL vs. Exclusionary Discipline Practices

I say strategic support because increasingly I hear that districts are against exclusionary discipline but have no practices in place to support teachers increasingly overwhelmed by violence and threats. As the National Educational Policy Center puts is, a “sole focus on a reduction in suspensions and expulsions will not address the systemic and structural inequalities that impact students’ social, emotional, and academic well-being”. In short, being against something without defining what you are for, especially when it comes to school culture, negatively impacts teaching and learning. Restorative Practices provide structure to culture building and can keep students on campus while also respecting the need to maintain a safe, non-threatening learning environment.

A Whole Child Framework

Restorative practice is a holistic framework for comprehensive culture shifts that impacts students, staff, parents and every member of the learning community in and beyond the school walls. This holistic approach takes what we know from SEL and trauma informed practices and puts stakeholders in the driver’s seat. In the classroom that means respecting and valuing each community member and centering dignity and respect to help everyone think about how their actions affects others. This kind of #bettertogether approach, when consistently implemented, impacts the ‘whole child’, that person schools say they teach. Consistency can mean the difference between success and failure. Failure, at its worst, leaves teachers and students who “just want to learn” feeling unprotected with their needs often being unmet. It means schools lose good teachers and good students. 

Next week, I’ll be covering more about RJ practices and how to implement it on a classroom, campus and district level, but for now, here are 5 questions you can use in your classroom today when someone makes a less than optimal choice:

Helping Students Think About Their Choices

• Why did you think that was a good choice/Why did you make that decision?
• How did that choice affect others?
• Who did it affect?
• How are you affected by the choice?
• What do you think you can do to make amends and give back to the learning community?

When students know they are valued members of a community who will need own up to their choices and make amends for any harm caused, they think differently about the choices they make and grow; both individually and as a part of the learning community. That deeper sense of belonging is what augments academic outcomes. 

Learn More:

National Educational Policy Center, Meta-analysis of belonging and academic outcomes.

Did you ever stop to think that Christopher is an anglified name? An Italian explorer would have been named Cristoforo Colombo, in Spanish he would have been called Cristóbal Colón. That’s the funny thing about the truth. Depending on your perspective, it might be different. Not more or less true, just different. Europeans called this side of the Atlantic the “New World”. But in fact, when looking at a timeline of civilization, Europe itself was once the new world. 

Vacation Education

As I lay on the beach on the island Columbus named Hispaniola, when his ship sunk, I looked at the people there. The Dominican people look like me, like my son. People spoke Spanish to us there. But the Arawakan, or Lokono, language, the Taino people, what had they been like before the European invasion and enslavement? What would the island be like today if the Taino had been able to keep their resources and flourish as a people? The Yale Genocide Project gave me some answers, but not all. I only knew that I was in the place where European conquest changed changed the trajectory of nations. As I stared out over the ocean Columbus once sailed across, it made me sad.

The Taino Discovered a Shipwrecked Columbus on Their Island

What would the Taino have told of that fateful landing in 1492? Would they be grateful to have been “discovered”? Taino Leader Jorge Estevez provides perspective on a missing side of the story in this National Geographic article. What do we tell our students when teaching about 1492 and the discovery of America? How do we advocate for the integration of truth when the fables we learned as children have become our national narrative? For this and any other historical facts taught from only one perspective, we can ask our students the following:

1. Whose stories are centered?

2. Whose stories are missing?

3. Who is telling the story?

Every author has a perspective and a purpose, and by examining varied perspectives, we can get a fuller picture of the truth. Just as a doctor listens to your lungs and gets and xray to make a diagnosis, all of the pieces are needed to see the whole picture. #TeachTruth

Further reading:

Edmund S Morgan setting the record straight

Columbus simplified

SmallBites is taking a short break this week for the Easter holiday and will return next week. Meanwhile, as you celebrate your faith, if you do, reflect over whether or not you may be judging others for being different in their expression of faith or identity. Let’s make faith count!

If you have not yet found your way to Jennifer Gonzales’ Cult of Pedagogy, please use this as your gateway. In this small bite of our interview, you’ll hear one of the 8 questions below that you can use to challenge yourself on your way to becoming a more empathetic, inclusive educator. For the entire podcast and show notes, please visit https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/blindspots/. While you’re there, click around. I know you’ll find resources you can use to better your practice. For additional resources, or to get your copy of Finding Your Blind Spots, please visit Hedreich.com/resources.

Questions to Ask Yourself:

1. How diverse is your personal circle and why does it look like it does? While not having a diverse circle doesn’t mean you are racist, elitist or any other -ist, it probably does mean that you don’t have much experience with people unlike you.
2. Who are the ‘others’ in your life? Make a list of 10 people you consider “us” and 10 people you consider “them.” These could be family members, work colleagues, neighbors, students, or anyone with whom you have fairly regular contact. In what ways are the people on your “us” list different from you? How are they similar? What about your ‘others’—how are they different? How are they the same? You can make lists, Venn diagrams, sketchnotes or any other representation to show differences and similarities.
3. How often do you use generalizations? Take a week and intentionally keep track of the times you use “they” to describe people of a certain color, culture, identity, gender, etc. One common campus generalization is “the Special Ed kids,” as though students under this umbrella are homogenous. Another is the admin/central office “they.”  Teachers often see admin as others. Keep track of “harmless” generalizations as well–”the students,” “the neighbors,” “the football team,” etc.
4. What is your initial perception when you talk to someone with an accent different from yours, for instance, a customer service rep, parent, or even a student?
5. Do you consider the integration of diverse historical perspectives best practice or divisive politics? One example of multiperspectivity is looking at different narratives between the European settlers and Indigenous people in the colonial U.S. For instance, the Thanksgiving story is usually told from the perspectives of the Pilgrims and mainly portrays their struggles for survival. Rarely do we hear of the hardships that the Wampanoag Indians endured or how they were holding feasts of thanks years before the Pilgrims even arrived. Another example of a lesser-known narrative is that of the Powhatan confederation, the Indigenous peoples who lost both land and life due to colonization in Virginia.
6. Who is on your “free pass” list? We tend to be more forgiving of those we like and are in agreement with. List five people–friends, students, public figures–whose failings you tend to excuse or write off. Explain also why you tend to “go easy” on them.
7. When do you tend most toward non-acceptance and judgment? Are your triggers cultural differences? Ideological and religious dissimilarity? In-group/out-group challenges?
8. How much cross-cultural literature, TV, and movies do you consume in order to familiarize yourself with what for some is an uncomfortable shift to a more diverse community?